tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894624276809574802.post1818940813927306243..comments2023-11-21T04:43:40.012-08:00Comments on Yamaye: Celebrating Jamaica's 50th year of independenceMike Auldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17513493493379446238noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894624276809574802.post-88509130619732172992020-08-03T19:07:25.468-07:002020-08-03T19:07:25.468-07:00JUST CAME ACROSS THIS 2018 COMMENT ON...
Colin Ja...JUST CAME ACROSS THIS 2018 COMMENT ON...<br /><br />Colin Jackson stated that he was quoted as being proud of his Taino DNA. It deeply "connected him to Jamaica." Jamaican chewing stick is a wild endemic vine, which I, as a child could identify in the bush, and used. We are ALL genetically our ancestors... Even by 1%. Beware Eurocentric racial pseudo-science and eyeball identifications. <br /><br />One is not taking anything away from African ingenuity. Sad to see though that you seem to belong to the group who relish in the "extinction" of Amerindians in their Asiatic hemisphere. They are as extinct as the English is in American slang or creole-speaking Jamaica. Things and people evolve, some retaining attributes of the ancestors. One day deciding that Amerindians are "Hispanic", a language, "Black," because they speak Caribbean English and not French, etc. is kowtowing to an invented racist agenda. We call this acquiescence the "Stockholm" syndrome. <br /><br />Never giving credit to, or knowing the obvious sources of those endemic elements on whose bones and knowledge that we built our recent (beginning in 1492) societies, is ungrateful. I challenge you to step off a boat into a foreign land, pick just one leaf and eat it knowing that it is a beneficial herb or a poison if taken in the wrong amount by process of mental osmosis. Call the medics! I give you the bammy! Know how to get the cyanide bout of that cassava/yuca root to make bread cazibi, tapioca, or a suicidal poison?) <br /><br />For example, As misinformed "Seen on TV;" when and where did unique Jamaican "Jerk" seasoning originate? Oh! Some guy, escaping the plantation, ran up into the mountains, walked pass the hidden village of Yamaye Taino cimarrones (the source word for Maroon, marooned, a color, and Seminole); built a caban/barbecoa/barbecue grill with a... What? A rack? Picked some purple ripe berries, sun dried the fruit (some he put down with rum to make pimento dram) and used this tree's seasoned dry wood; cut up some endemic bird, or "habanero" pepper (the Taino aji!); and invented world-famous Maroon "jerk" chicken (or pig, imported from Europe) using a Maya word "cherk," and Amerindian technology to smoke aguti/or "Indian" "coney," an old English word for rabbit?Mike Auldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17513493493379446238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894624276809574802.post-38113943934994016772018-07-12T05:18:45.845-07:002018-07-12T05:18:45.845-07:00Largely flawed piece which seeks to downplay the m...Largely flawed piece which seeks to downplay the many clearly African influences which you now claim to be "indigenous". For example, using Colin Jackson physical appearance to suggest Taino origin is total rubbish but to be so ignorant of the use of "chewing sticks" as an essentially African tradition really is very telling as to the level of research you have done. <br />Like many, you seem to confuse the largely extinct indigenous Taino with the Asians brought over for indentured servitude who are responsible for many of the foodstuffs you list. Those Asians and Africans form the overwhelming content of the Caribbean today and Jamaica in particular is essentially an African nation which as a result of the Transatlantic Slave Trade is situated in the Caribbean.To now project people such as Colin Jackson as having any significant Taino genes is romanticised rubbish!Lazy Riderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17085175179803043673noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894624276809574802.post-42840849213009966992012-01-15T00:42:12.233-08:002012-01-15T00:42:12.233-08:00Hi Mike:
You were always the inquiring academic t...Hi Mike:<br /><br />You were always the inquiring academic type-and here you have uncovered so many of the issues/facts that reminds us to always examine the sources of the things we currently believe and hold sacred. You have shared many invaluable bits of information with us. Would we do some of the same kinds of inquiries for so many other aspects of our beliefs, we would more early come to understand how knowledge becomes constructed and question more of the ideas that hold us prisoners!<br /><br />I particularly found the parallel to the Judeo-Christian "Adam and Eve" creation myth interesting...as a cultural anthropologist. All native peoples/cultures of times past, had their own, sparsely recorded, accounts of how they came to be!! How is we have come to demonize anyone who dares to depart from this "Mighty" Judeo/Christian account!?<br />Continue the good work!! RassEd.Ed Shawnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894624276809574802.post-75943719022994083692012-01-14T15:17:00.455-08:002012-01-14T15:17:00.455-08:00Michael;
Enjoyed this very informative article. I...Michael;<br /><br />Enjoyed this very informative article. It is an important work that all Jamaicans need to know in order to begin to understand their rich heritage. I am appreciative of the fact that you have done so much research on the Taino. <br />I expect to hear much more from you on the subject. Seeking out more descendants of the Taino would be fascinating.<br /><br />V. ScottAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com